CINEMATIC REVELATIONS allows me the luxury of writing, editing and archiving my film and television reviews. Some reviews appeared initially in "The Commercial Dispatch" and "The Planet Weekly" and then later in the comment archives at the Internet Movie Database. IMDB.COM, however, imposes a limit on both the number of words and the number of times that an author may revise their comments. I hope that anybody who peruses these expanded reviews will find them useful.

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Sunday, February 17, 2013

Before I saw “A Good Day to Die Hard,” I remembered “Die
Hard 2: Die Harder” as my least favorite film in the Bruce Willis franchise.
Now, “Max Payne” director John Moore’s “A Good Day to Die Hard” (** OUT OF
****) has acquired that dubious distinction.This fast-paced, but formulaic, 98-minute actioneer should have gone the
straight to video route.Nobody would
have missed it.I’ve seen better Bruce
Willis epics go the straight to video route.Although it boasts some sensational, larger-than-life stunts, the fourth
“Die Hard” sequel qualifies as a Spartan saga with little to distinguish from
its straight t0 video competition.The
film generates little charisma and lacks a strong villain like previous “Die
Hards.”Indeed, it appears that
Twentieth Century Fox has inserted the Bruce Willis/John McClane hero into a raw-edged,
generic thriller about a tense father and son relationship.Unlike the first two “Die Hard” movies, the
action doesn’t occur at Christmas, and McClane isn’t confined to one setting as
he was in the first two “Die Hards.”“A
Good Day to Die Hard” is more like “Die Hard with a Vengeance” and “Live Free
or Die Hard” since the hero remains at large.

“A Good Day to Die Hard” takes place almost entirely in
Moscow.The Russian villains are former
political allies who are prepared to kill each other.Chaganin (Sergey Kolesnikov of “Cold Souls”)
is a clean-shaven, natty, high-ranking politician with influence galore.The other is a wealthy bearded dissident,
Komarov (Sebastian Koch of “Unknown”), who bides his time in jail playing
chess.Ultimately, one of these villains
wants what the villains in “The Expendables 2” wanted: weapons grade uranium.As Detective Lieutenant John McClane, Bruce
Willis returns in fine form to thwart the evil villains.Sadly, scenarist Skip Woods doesn’t give
Willis any clever wisecracks.Consequently, for lack of anything better to utter, Bruce says, “I’m on
vacation,” at intervals. Ironically, he
isn't on vacation. He does utter his
personal motto once when he pulls his biggest stunt to save his son’s life.He performs feats of derring-do to assist his
estranged son.Basically, Bruce is the
whole show.The only other actor you may
recognize is Cole Hauser.Cast as the
expendable CIA partner, Hauser gets caught in the cross-fire.The remainder of the cast is largely
unknown.Jai Courtney resembles Sam
Worthington of “Avatar” fame, but he radiates little of Worthington’s charm.

Our indestructible hero, Detective John McClane, is shooting
targets on the NYPD firing range when he learns that his son Junior (Jai
Courtney of “Jack Reacher”) has been imprisoned in Russia.What the elder McClane doesn’t learn until
later is John McClane, Jr., works as a spook for the Central Intelligence
Agency.Naturally, McClane flies off for
Moscow after an obligatory moment with his daughter, Lucy (Mary Elizabeth
Winstead of “Live Free or Die Hard”), with whom he remains on good terms.The last time we saw Lucy, she was struggling
with the villains in “Live Free or Die Hard.” Aside from Winstead reprising her
role, there is little here to associate with the franchise.When our heroes get a quiet moment to
reminisce, they mumble forgettable dialogue. They are better off blasting away
at the opposition or dodging both bullets and explosions.McClane still has a thing or two that he can
teach his son, but their relationship doesn’t advance very far.They lack camaraderie, and Junior is one of
those sons who could die and not be missed.

Everybody is after the elusive Komarov who claims to have an
incriminating file on the wicked Chaganin.You see, Chaganin is campaigning for the position of Defense
Minister.Komarov had a deal with the
CIA, specifically Agent John McClane, Jr., before everything went chaotic.Chaganin will do anything to dispose of
Komarov, and he dispatches a gang of gunsels led by Alik (Rasha Bukvic of
“Taken”) who hates Americans.The
younger McClane shoots his way into prison and then during a raid on the
courthouse, Komarov and he get together.John confronts them, and Junior puts a pistol in his face.No, he isn’t happy to see his father.Meantime, Alik and company are breathing down
Junior’s neck.A demolition-derby
automotive chase ensues with some spectacularly orchestrated car crashes.Junior and Komarov are desperately struggling
to elude Alik, while John tags along close behind trying to run interference
when he has the chance.As it turns out,
Komarov hasn’t been entirely honest with Junior about the mysterious file he
has on Chaganin.Eventually, we learn
that Komarov has a daughter with her own pistol and an attitude.The Komarovs betray our heroes and grab a
helicopter.They are bound for the
sinister ruins of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant when Komarov has stashed
the file.

Sadly, the villains in “A Good Day to Die Hard” aren’t
memorable.Nobody here is both as deadly
and debonair as Alan Rickman was in the original “Die Hard” or Jeremy Irons in
“Die Hard with a Vengeance.”After
father and son reconcile themselves somewhat, the best they can do is dodge
more bullets and hope for the best.At
one point, after surviving several close scrapes, McClane scrambles aboard the
villains helicopter and commandeers a vehicle stashed inside the chopper.The villains are about to riddle yet another
office building with machine gun fire where Junior is hiding.Our stalwart hero cranks up the vehicle
inside and drives it out of the cargo bay.This action tilts the helicopter backwards at a precipitous angle so its
machine guns miss their intended target.This destruction of the helicopter qualifies as the best of the fireball
explosions in “A Good Day to Die Hard.”

“Swordfish” scenarist Skip Woods doesn’t give us a lot to
get attached to in this installment.The
surprises aren’t very surprising, and the filmmakers struggle to do anything
that hasn’t been done before, like blowing up the above-mentioned
helicopter.No matter when you see it,
“A Good Day to Die Hard” has nothing good about it.